LUDLOW, Mass. (WWLP) – It was a shocking start to the Fourth of July in Ludlow: a house fire killed three people at a home at 68 Newbury Street Tuesday morning.

“It was awful. We looked up out the window and we saw the house was destroyed by fire,” said Mary Silva of Ludlow. “We didn’t know what was going on.”

The Ludlow Fire Department received a call from a neighbor just before 6:30, alerting them of the fire. The fire startled many nearby residents, who were sleeping when the house went up in flames.

“I was woken up by the alarm of the church, and I came out and I saw what was happening here,” said Fr. Vitor Oliveira, Pastor at our Lady of Fatima Church.

When firefighters got to the home, it was already engulfed in flames, but by the time they got inside, they found the bodies of the three victims. Neighbors watched outside the home, as firefighters went through the home, putting out the last of the ashes.

“Everybody is very friendly, everybody helps each other, and that’s how this whole Winsor, Newbury Street area is,” said Silva.

It will take a collective effort to determine a cause and where in the home the fire started.

“We are working with the state fire marshal’s office, Ludlow police and state police in investigating this tragedy,” Ludlow Fire Chief Ryan Pease said.

State Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey said that the Hampden District Attorney’s Office will later release the identities of the three victims.